Honda takes $2.75bn stake in GM autonomous cars unit

Honda has taken a $2.75bn (£2.1bn) stake in General Motors autonomous car unit, GM Cruise, in the most recent development in the shared mobility market.

The Japanese car maker said it wanted to work with the American business to develop its own self-driving car and commit to the “large-scale deployment of autonomous vehicle technology.”

Honda and GM will work jointly with Cruise to fund and develop a purpose-built autonomous vehicle for Cruise that can serve a wide variety of use cases and be manufactured at high volume for global deployment.

Honda said that it, Cruise, and General Motors will explore global opportunities for commercial deployment of the Cruise network.

The news comes as Toyota and Softbank, which has previously invested $2.25bn in GMCruise, announced a partnership to work on self-driving cars on the same day.

“This is the logical next step in General Motors and Honda’s relationship, given our joint work on electric vehicles, and our close integration with Cruise,” said General Motors Chairman and chief executive Mary Barra. “Together, we can provide Cruise with the world’s best design, engineering and manufacturing expertise, and global reach to establish them as the leader in autonomous vehicle technology – while they move to deploy self-driving vehicles at scale.”

“Honda chose to collaborate with Cruise and General Motors based on their leadership in autonomous and electric vehicle technology and our shared vision of a zero-emissions and zero-collision world,” said Honda Executive Vice President and Representative Director chief operations officer Seiji Kuraishi. “We will complement their strengths through our expertise in space efficiency and design to develop the most desirable and effective shared autonomous vehicle.”

“With the backing of General Motors, SoftBank and now Honda, Cruise is deeply resourced to accomplish our mission to safely deploy autonomous technology across the globe,” said Cruise chief executive Kyle Vogt. “The Honda partnership paves the way for massive scale by bringing a beautiful, efficient, and purpose-built vehicle to our network of shared autonomous vehicles.”